Sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis

4 days ago - Bolton estimated the expected loss to the Venezuelan economy at more than $11 billion in 2019. In February 2019, Maduro ordered PDVSA to move its European office to Moscow to protect its overseas assets from U.S. sanctions. The Russian state-run oil company Rosneft had supplied naphtha to Venezuela and continued to purchase Venezuelan petroleum, which it said was through contracts that were in place prior to the U.S.

2 weeks ago - Venezuela's oil infrastructure degraded badly under Chavez and Maduro and U.S. sanctions. It's estimated it could take $100 billion or more and a decade to fix it. WATCH | Former Chilean ambassador on the role of Venezuelan oil: ‘Oil is central’ ...

June 25, 2025 - Moreover, it authorizes the imposition of blocking sanctions on persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, any transactions involving deceptive practices or corruption and the Government of Venezuela or projects or programs administered by the Government of Venezuela, or to be an immediate adult family member of such a person. On January 28, 2019, the Treasury Department, following from consultation with the Department of State, determined that persons operating in Venezuela’s oil sector may now be subject to sanctions pursuant to E.O.

3 weeks ago - WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four companies for operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and identified four associated oil tankers as blocked property. These vessels, some of which are part of the shadow fleet serving Venezuela, continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s illegitimate narco-terrorist regime.

President Trump said that Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's vice president and oil minister, is willing to work with the United States as acting president. U.S. officials have said they intend to pressure the acting government to, among other aims, allow the United States to direct oil sales and proceeds, thereby limiting the role of U.S. adversaries in the sector. ... The United States has imposed individual, financial, and sectoral sanctions on the Venezuelan government, as well as sanctions on the former Maduro government and its supporters.

2 weeks ago - "They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for a period of time undefined as leverage to micromanage the country," he told reporters. "The scope and insanity of that plan is absolutely stunning." Venezuela has some of the world's largest proven oil reserves, but years of disinvestment, mismanagement and US sanctions have left it with output of only about a million barrels per day - less than 1% of global production.

October 28, 2014 - Government figures including President Nicolás Maduro were sanctioned in 2017. The US issued further EOs in 2018 and 2019, which prohibited access to US financial markets and blocked the property and interests of the Maduro government in the United States and within the control of US persons. The US has issued various Venezuela-related licences and revoked licences enabling oil business in Venezuela in March 2025. Since April 2025, any country that imports Venezuelan oil may be subject to a 25% tariff on its exports to the US.

2 weeks ago - U.S. officials have long argued that Venezuela’s oil sector became intertwined with sanctions evasion, illicit shipping networks, and criminal activity. In recent years, Venezuelan ...

Washington rewarded the move by further easing sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector, allowing it to export oil and gas products for six months. However, after the Venezuelan government’s failure to meet conditions for a fair vote and the revival of a centuries-old territorial dispute with Guyana over control of the oil-rich Essequibo region, Washington reimposed oil sanctions in April 2024.

3 days ago - The basin’s oil is especially dense and vicious, with a tar-like consistency that necessitates specialist methods such as steam injection and diluents for extraction. Industry analysts say tapping the basin’s true potential will require huge investment due to the degraded state of the sector’s infrastructure and knowledge base, following late leader Hugo Chavez’s nationalisation of the industry and years of US sanctions that prevented Venezuela from accessing foreign capital and modern technology.

Many would argue it’s a good thing that Maduro is no longer in power: he has an extensive record of human rights abuses and the Venezuelan economy is in crisis. But this illegal attack was not designed to help Venezuelans determine their own future and control their own resources. Trump attacked Venezuela to get the country’s oil.

The crisis peaked in 2017 when oil prices hit rock bottom, the U.S. administration imposed sanctions that cut PdVSA’s access to the U.S. debt markets, and there was no money left to repair upgraders in the Orinoco Belt.

2 weeks ago - EO 13808, issued on 27 July 2017, prohibits the Venezuelan government from accessing U.S. financial markets, allowing for "exceptions to minimize the impact on the Venezuelan people and U.S. economic interests. The sanctions restricted the Venezuelan government's access to US debt and equity markets." The restriction includes the state-run oil company, PDVSA.

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2 weeks ago - President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil, which will be sold at market prices. "That money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States," Trump said in a social media post.

Brad W. Setser is the Whitney Shepardson senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In the days since U.S. President Donald Trump’s operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his administration has made clear it wants to control the South American country’s oil production. Venezuela’s oil production has long been hampered by both Venezuela’s mismanagement of its oil fields and U.S. sanctions...

3 weeks ago - In effect, Chevron is being repaid in oil, rather than paying Venezuela in cash. The Venezuelan government does not receive fresh revenue from these operations — no dividends, no budget income, no direct cash transfers. The licence is temporary and must be renewed periodically, giving Washington the ability to revoke it if political conditions deteriorate. US officials argue that Chevron’s continued presence actually strengthens sanctions enforcement rather than undermining it.